That's because all the riff raff are moving out to the suburbs now because it's getting too expensive to live in the cities. An example of this is Washington D.C. and P.G. County, Maryland. Don't go to P.G. County, ever, it's not safe there. If someone asks you to meet them in cities with names such as Landover, Largo, or Oxen Hill say "HELL TO THE NO!"

Walker:That's because all the riff raff are moving out to the suburbs now because it's getting too expensive to live in the cities. An example of this is Washington D.C. and P.G. County, Maryland. Don't go to P.G. County, ever, it's not safe there. If someone asks you to meet them in cities with names such as Landover, Largo, or Oxen Hill say "HELL TO THE NO!"

That's exactly the opposite of what they said on the news today. They said the younger generation can't afford the big mortgage in the suburbs (and the associated costs) so they are moving into the cities because it is much cheaper.

Walker:That's because all the riff raff are moving out to the suburbs now because it's getting too expensive to live in the cities. An example of this is Washington D.C. and P.G. County, Maryland. Don't go to P.G. County, ever, it's not safe there. If someone asks you to meet them in cities with names such as Landover, Largo, or Oxen Hill say "HELL TO THE NO!"

It's certainly becoming the case in the twin cities. Minneapolis/Saint Paul have been adding or renovating high incoming condos and apartments whereas the surrounding suburbs are at least on par, if not cheaper to live in.

There's also the amenities of cities. Population density amortizes the costs of infrastructure, even as commercial property becomes more expensive, it correspondingly gets more profitable for the renters, meaning more and more interesting shopping/eating destinations, and so on.

It'd be pretty simple to eradicate homelessness. Everyone is required to purchase a home and if you choose not to, then you are taxed 10% of your income. That money is then used to purchase homes for people who can't afford them. Those people will then take wonderful, white glove care of those houses, require no further assistance from the government. They will not turn them into chronic money-pits simply because they know the government safety net will supply them with additional housing after they've burned this motherfarker to the ground.

spentmiles:It'd be pretty simple to eradicate homelessness. Everyone is required to purchase a home and if you choose not to, then you are taxed 10% of your income. That money is then used to purchase homes for people who can't afford them. Those people will then take wonderful, white glove care of those houses, require no further assistance from the government. They will not turn them into chronic money-pits simply because they know the government safety net will supply them with additional housing after they've burned this motherfarker to the ground.

...you're right. We should let the homeless die in the streets like rats.

spentmiles:It'd be pretty simple to eradicate homelessness. Everyone is required to purchase a home and if you choose not to, then you are taxed 10% of your income. That money is then used to purchase homes for people who can't afford them. Those people will then take wonderful, white glove care of those houses, require no further assistance from the government. They will not turn them into chronic money-pits simply because they know the government safety net will supply them with additional housing after they've burned this motherfarker to the ground.

Walker:That's because all the riff raff are moving out to the suburbs now because it's getting too expensive to live in the cities. An example of this is Washington D.C. and P.G. County, Maryland. Don't go to P.G. County, ever, it's not safe there. If someone asks you to meet them in cities with names such as Landover, Largo, or Oxen Hill say "HELL TO THE NO!"

from Wiki: Prince George's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland, immediately north, east, and south of Washington, DC. As of 2010, it has a population of 863,420 and is the wealthiest African-American majority county in the nation.[1][2]

also: The median income for a household in the county in 2008 was $71,696,[24] and the median income for a family was $81,908. The 2008 mean income for a family in the county was $94,360. As of 2000, males had a median income of $38,904 versus $35,718 for females. The 2008 per capita income for the county was $23,360. About 4.70% of families and 7.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.2% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over. Prince George's County is the 70th most affluent county in the United States by median income for families and the most affluent county in the United States with an African-American majority. Almost 38.8% of all households in Prince George's County, earned over $100,000 in 2008.[25]

Your average hipster who holds a low-to-mid-income job (or is still looking for one) can't buy a goddamned suburban house. And why would they want to? You definitely don't want to ride your fixie for three hours just to visit the Korean-Mexican fusion food truck before tonight's five-band local musician concert at Old Tyme Slum Bar & Music Hall.

IlGreven:spentmiles: It'd be pretty simple to eradicate homelessness. Everyone is required to purchase a home and if you choose not to, then you are taxed 10% of your income. That money is then used to purchase homes for people who can't afford them. Those people will then take wonderful, white glove care of those houses, require no further assistance from the government. They will not turn them into chronic money-pits simply because they know the government safety net will supply them with additional housing after they've burned this motherfarker to the ground.

...you're right. We should let the homeless die in the streets like rats.

How's about me make it easy for them to get medical care and job assistance? Like.. giving them an address to receive some mail at/ teaching them how to scrub reactor walls.

Walker:That's because all the riff raff are moving out to the suburbs now because it's getting too expensive to live in the cities. An example of this is Washington D.C. and P.G. County, Maryland. Don't go to P.G. County, ever, it's not safe there. If someone asks you to meet them in cities with names such as Landover, Largo, or Oxen Hill say "HELL TO THE NO!"

IHadMeAVision:Walker: That's because all the riff raff are moving out to the suburbs now because it's getting too expensive to live in the cities. An example of this is Washington D.C. and P.G. County, Maryland. Don't go to P.G. County, ever, it's not safe there. If someone asks you to meet them in cities with names such as Landover, Largo, or Oxen Hill say "HELL TO THE NO!"

from Wiki: Prince George's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland, immediately north, east, and south of Washington, DC. As of 2010, it has a population of 863,420 and is the wealthiest African-American majority county in the nation.[1][2]

also: The median income for a household in the county in 2008 was $71,696,[24] and the median income for a family was $81,908. The 2008 mean income for a family in the county was $94,360. As of 2000, males had a median income of $38,904 versus $35,718 for females. The 2008 per capita income for the county was $23,360. About 4.70% of families and 7.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.2% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over. Prince George's County is the 70th most affluent county in the United States by median income for families and the most affluent county in the United States with an African-American majority. Almost 38.8% of all households in Prince George's County, earned over $100,000 in 2008.[25]

Oh wow, what a shiathole!

It is a shiathole. And it is dangerous. Go visit, rather than cutting/pasting Wiki. You'll see.

So based on population? Makes sense. More renters in the city and that's the thing to do now, not home ownership. My line of work has been converting a lot of industrial inner city buildings to actual apartments. Seems to be a trend.

thecpt:So based on population? Makes sense. More renters in the city and that's the thing to do now, not home ownership. My line of work has been converting a lot of industrial inner city buildings to actual apartments. Seems to be a trend.

Cities can be made very human and humane. Suburbs have a kind of enforced sterility on them.

My wife's friend and her husband moved out to the burbs. It takes us 40 minutes to drive out and see them. Consequently, they don't do anything now but sit in their giant house and watch TV. They're really packing on the pounds. Avoiding getting fat is reason enough not to move to the burbs.

"By the FBI's count, Prince George's County has 7,131 residents associated with gangs. That's second only to Miami-Dade County, in the FBI's list of counties with the largest number of gang members in the southeast."

"By the FBI's count, Prince George's County has 7,131 residents associated with gangs. That's second only to Miami-Dade County, in the FBI's list of counties with the largest number of gang members in the southeast."

Why do you need to re-enforce a point that has already been accepted. When black people get into large groups, they are called gangs. Well, unless you have a couple on a tandem bicycle, then it's called organized crime.

The girl in the article mentions her parents' commute. Her parents probably did their commuting in the 80s or 90s when gas prices were MUCH lower (yeah, I know, they took the train in TFA). Didn't cost someone an arm and a leg to fill up their car then. Add to that urban decay of those years, the crack epidemic and gang violence and most people have fled the cities to avoid the "scary minorities".

So what changed? Gas is 3.40/gal and spikes up to 4.50/gal at times. Also consider that it was the mortgage crisis that put us in this palooke in the first place. I'm sure the >30 crowd has LOTS of trust in banks and the government now. Saving all your money and investing in a house and it loses 20-60% of its value because some banker found out how to package debt and make money off of it? Piss off. The suburbanites who choose to live in the 'burbs usually already had a job before picking their house. With so many of my generation who can't find a job coming out of college, how the fark are we supposed to afford a house, much less a commute? Add to that the damage to the environment and general blandness of the suburbs and its no surprise that this article is true.

Even personally, I have no desire to live in the suburbs. If I have that much money and I feel like I want some land, I would rather buy a house in the mountains to go fishing/vacation. Why spend 300k+ on a house you pretty much never see when working a 55 hr workweek with a 2 hr commute?

FTFA: "Primary cities in large metropolitan areas with populations of more than 1 million grew by 1.1 percent last year, compared with 0.9 percent in surrounding suburbs."

Wow, that is a stunning rate of growth. No wonder there's a story about it. And a quote from a young person who will change her mind once she figures out how much a home that will accommodate a family costs in a major city, plus how very shiatty the schools are there. She and her husband will either have to make enough money to buy a house and send their kids to private school, or they'll move to the 'burbs.

DrewCurtisJr:Where are these suburbs with no restaurants in walking distance?

That would be all of them, pretty much. I can't even count the number of restaurants within a short walk of my house. Yes, I own a house. In a city. Because in residential neighborhoods, it's surprisingly affordable. Many of my neighbors have yards, because the idea that cities are concrete from horizon to horizon is also bullshiat.

Yes, you can get more land and more house for the same money in the suburbs. And if you need a 5-bedroom house on 10 acres of land, then yes, you really shouldn't be living in a city. But not everyone needs that kind of space (my house, at 1,300sq. ft. is a few hundred square feet larger than I'd like).

Perhaps people are realizing that driving 3 hours a day with the rest of the world to work 40 hours a week means you are giving up 15 hours a week of life without compensation.

So you move in town and get 13 hours a week back, which only cost you the price of downsizing to what you could afford near the office. That's 13 hours less frustration with traffic, or time spent on projects, or time spent with family. And now you live near a good park, so the fact you don't have a yard to pointlessly care for just so the kids can play by themselves doesn't impact you.

And actually, after a little work with Zillow, I'd say that an upper middle class family living in the pisspot that is Little Elm or the Californian refugee camp that is Frisco could move into a good part of North Dallas for the same price as their current McMansion.

Little Elm embodies one of my chief complaints about how things work; for the longest time they had two lanes heading towards Dallas, one lane back. You know, because getting the masses to work on time was more important than getting them home.

Rapmaster2000:My wife's friend and her husband moved out to the burbs. It takes us 40 minutes to drive out and see them. Consequently, they don't do anything now but sit in their giant house and watch TV. They're really packing on the pounds. Avoiding getting fat is reason enough not to move to the burbs.

We're actually looking to do the reverse. Been living in the 'burbs too long. Everything we like to do is in town, which means a gnarly commute, especially if drinking is going to be involved. Everything out here is nice, quiet, and we don't have to worry about somebody knicking our stuff, but there is NOTHING to do but stay home or go to a fern bar for crappy drinks served in little sand buckets or lava lamps.

Hard to find a place in town with a big enough garage/parking area for two cars and three bikes though.

The Southern Logic Company:Even personally, I have no desire to live in the suburbs. If I have that much money and I feel like I want some land, I would rather buy a house in the mountains to go fishing/vacation. Why spend 300k+ on a house you pretty much never see when working a 55 hr workweek with a 2 hr commute?

POS houses around me cost 500k (north of NYC). If I bought one in a decent town in central PA where I'm from it would only be 250k. An ok house here is easily one million, but sadly this is where the work is. Yeah, pardon me but I just got out of college. I'd rather live in a POS apartment and live with a 5 minute commute rather than a POS house identical to all the others with an hour long commute. There is literally no reason to own a house for me, and there won't be until i'm 35.

We live just outside the city center of (mid-size Florida metropolis). We'd totally move downtown, now that amenities such as a grocery store and theatre have returned, if it weren't for the drunken meat-market atmosphere, and the abusive homeless which haunt the streets at night.

wildcardjack:That's 13 hours less frustration with traffic, or time spent on projects, or time spent with family

I spend, in total, about an hour a day commuting, all within the city. I could probably streamline this, but that's time spent walking, sitting on a bus reading a book, doing some photography, and maybe a little light shopping. My commute is me time, not a slog through traffic to get to and from work.

We live in the burbs now, but I'd actually like to move further out to the outskirts. More room, more land, and more quiet. I still like the city for activities, but I'm beyond wanting to live there. It happens when you grow out of your 20's.

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of my exceedingly quiet city neighborhood. Oh, wait, there goes the ear-splitting racket of a car driving by at 10MPH. That happens once every hour or so. Maybe.

I'll never understand why people think cities are noisy to live in.

Tat'dGreaser:I still can't understand how people think it's a good thing to overcrowd a city.

Most cities in the US are well beneath their capacity. We're still recovering from the White Flight era.

t3knomanser:That would be all of them, pretty much. I can't even count the number of restaurants within a short walk of my house. Yes, I own a house. In a city. Because in residential neighborhoods, it's surprisingly affordable. Many of my neighbors have yards, because the idea that cities are concrete from horizon to horizon is also bullshiat.

Yes, you can get more land and more house for the same money in the suburbs. And if you need a 5-bedroom house on 10 acres of land, then yes, you really shouldn't be living in a city. But not everyone needs that kind of space (my house, at 1,300sq. ft. is a few hundred square feet larger than I'd like).

Amen. I live in a 2200 sq ft duplex five minutes from downtown seattle. We occupy 1400 sq ft of that duplex and have an entire room we don't use, even after 10 years. 6,000 sq ft lot and a 2 car garage. But it feels like an estate to me. I can walk to the movies, the grocery store, the coffee shop, and no fewer than 10 thai restaurants. Three miles to the gym on a bike path. Oh, and my office is across the street from my house. Y'all go on and get your big house in the suburbs and I sincerely hope you enjoy filling that farker up. Me, the older I get the less shiat I want to be honest.